Anti-War Resolution

Health Care Workers Union, SEIU Local 250

The Health Care Workers Union, SEIU Local 250 has 85,000 members in Northern California. Our members spend their working lives giving care to the sick, the elderly and the disabled. We work in both the public and private sectors. We care about human life and we care about our country. We participate fully in our communities, in our state and local politics and government, in our religious institutions and in our union. As a union and as patriotic Americans, we are obligated to educate ourselves about current affairs that affect our members, our families and our patients. We are obliged to make our opinions known to our representatives. Through this resolution we are addressing an issue of overriding concern to us -- the possibility of the war on Iraq initiated by our government.

After discussion and debate by our Executive Board, we adopt the following positions concerning a possible war with Iraq:

1. We oppose any unilateral, preemptive war against Iraq initiated by the United States or any other nation. We urge our government to bring its case against Iraq to the United Nations (U.N.) and to abide by the decision of the United Nations.

2. Preemptive war should need a higher standard of support from the international community than does defensive war. If the United States or its close allies were under attack from Iraq, the support of the United Nations would not be required. Fortunately, this is not the case.

3. We encourage the President to continue to raise the issue of compliance by Iraq with the terms of the 1991 agreement. We think the United Nations should enforce its resolutions concerning inspection and disarmament, and it is appropriate for the United States to use diplomatic and economic pressure to achieve this end. It is not appropriate for the United States to bypass the U.N. absent an immediate threat by Iraq against us or our allies or Iraq's neighbors.

4. In our modern world we must strengthen multi-national institutions such as the U.N. or else we risk a breakdown of international law. The U.S. must not be the nation that sets the precedent for unilateral, preemptive war.

5. The timing of this rush to war by President Bush is very troubling and suspicious. Our economy is in trouble; our social safety net is being weakened; our seniors need coverage for prescription drugs; our health care system is in crisis and we have an election on the horizon. Suddenly President Bush has changed the discussions into a referendum on whether or not the American people will support our military in a war. And he has done this in spite of the fact that there is no evidence that Iraq is more of an immediate danger to any other nation that it was 6 months or a year ago or even two years ago when President Bush was inaugurated.

6. The American people support a response to Al-Qaeda in reaction to the horrific September 11 attacks. This support must not be misused to justify attacking Iraq. There is no credible evidence that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attacks. A preemptive attack against Iraq will weaken appropriate, multi-lateral efforts to reduce terrorism.

7. And, finally, we are mindful that wars kill people and destroy societies. The potential death toll in Iraq is staggering. Furthermore, an attack on Iraq would cause an estimated 1.5 million Iraqi civilians to become refugees. War will spend huge resources in people and money -- resources that could be used for health care, schools and social services. Experts estimate that an attack would use more than $100 billion of U.S. taxpayer monies. Because of these many reasons, a war should be the last resort. We are not convinced that all other options have been exhausted. We are not convinced that Iraq poses an immediate threat to our country, our allies or its neighbors and we are extremely suspicious of the timing of this rush to war.